Tag: sci-fi

Cross posted on metatronsarmy.com.

The past several weeks have been filled with challenges, along with some happy moments.

Gary Numan concert anyone?

They’ve also been filled with a series of coincidences – what Jung famously referred to as synchronicities.

Thankfully as these are the lifeblood of a synchronicity junky.

It all started with the concert.  While walking to the venue I noticed a nearby New Age store and though closed I made a note to return.

Which I did when in Seattle for EMF research purposes.

While there I learned a bit – and I mean a small bit – about “The Dude.”

Metatron.

The proprietor, responding to a question about a symbol on a necklace, quoted from and showed me a couple books that included various individuals’ take on the Archangel.

That was several weeks ago.  In the interim a number of chaotic events have brought unique challenges, both professional and personal, and while I believe the worst is behind me, there’s a bit of debris in the field.  Knowing only some of the situation was under my control I turned to one of my favorite coping strategies:  Work on what I can control.

Which usually means writing.

Unfortunately, the sheer quantity of situations beyond my control meant it was difficult to calm the mind enough to focus on any one solvable item.  As this has happened before I engaged in the next level of defense  Read a reread.  Generally fiction, these are stories that entertain and allow me to think of something other than what I can’t control.  Better, they allow me to think of nothing.

Lynn Kurland and Sharaon Sala/Dinah McCall are some of my very favorites though Abigail Drake’s South Side stories have certainly been fun.  Especially given I know the area from when I attended a grad level networking course at Carnegie Mellon/U Pitt during the Corporate Black Hole years.

This week I found myself feeling pretty exhausted by it all.  As I was reading one of the rereads my eyes focused on a phrase  

And how desperately she needed hope.  

Though I certainly didn’t feel desperate I did spare a moment to think how nice it would be to have a sign that a specific situation having to do with a writing conundrum would be resolved.

Specifically, I thought to myself, “I could use some hope.”

Ask and ye shall receive.

Later that evening, Aaron and I were sitting in the living room, relaxing in companionable silence.

Sometimes we talk – this time I was reading my reread and he was browsing.

At one point he looked up at me and turned the laptop so I could see the image.

I didn’t recognize one of the players so he turned it back and began reading.  He kept looking up as if silently prodding me to get it – which I didn’t – after which he said “I need to play this out loud.”

I told you – I was exhasted which is my term for mentally fried.

It was a piece about Alice in Chains and Elton John collaborating on Black Gives Way to Blue.

At the end of the clip the narrator says that Cantrell explained the meaning of the lyrics to Chris Cornell’s daughter Lily, who was 9 at the time.

Sometimes there are very dark and challenging times in life and it may seem like things will never get better. But if you stay strong and keep moving forward and look out on the horizon, you’ll start to see a little point of light way out there. And slowly, the black would give way to blue.

I truly felt as if this was the answer to the earlier thought.  I told Aaron who shared he hadn’t looked at that site in ages.

Coincidence or Fortuitious Timing?

I thanked The Dude for giving me hope that indeed things will get better.

As for the idea of keep moving forward – I hadn’t stopped so I had that nailed.  

Tenacity is one of my better traits.

This morning I was at my desk pondering the writing conundrum and thinking of any fresh ways to approach a resolution.  Unable to come up with anything I decided to work on a different writing project.

This one has a few unanswered questions but I’m moving forward by keeping notes of what I do have.

I alternated this activity with reading the reread and playing a few rounds of Free Cell.  The game allows my mind to drift which helps me come up with solutions to various writing challenges.

I’d deinstalled it but the results in terms of creative inspiration were disastrous so I reinstalled it.

I felt a sudden urge to look at the Llewellyn website.

I haven’t looked at this site in years.

I followed a strong urge to click on a very specific link, eventually coming to a page of books.  I was about to close out the window when my eyes zeroed in on a book.  It was one the proprietor of the New Age store had mentioned.

It isn’t about Metatron directly but it apparently has scholarly references in it.

I browsed the sample chapters and, though intrigued, didn’t feel inspired to buy.

Not my thing.

And then…

I tried to turn my attention back to the nonfiction project work I was doing but I kept feeling a strong urge to go back to that book.

The Dude was prodding me.  Big time.

I went over to Amazon – because I have an account set up there – and opened the sample chapters again.  I also argued with the Dude about the point of buying the book.

I said, “What am I going to do with this?  I don’t get into this stuff and you know it.”

It was like arguing with a brick wall.

Something I describe in great detail in Lessons From the Edge: An Author’s Guide to Metatron’s Army.

Knowing I would have no peace until I obeyed the guy I bought the book.  I hadn’t even finished the first page when I understood why he wanted me to buy it.  Not only did it answer the conundrum I was facing it gave me direction on a Messenger of the Gods challenge I’d been dealing with for weeks.

Just like that.

While I appreciate synchronicities, I’m not one to read into every coincidence.

More’s the pity to some I imagine.

If this was a single event out of the blue I would be more apt to write it off as a coincidence.  Given the context of it all?  It was an answer to a plea for help.

And hope.

The book I chose isn’t the point of the post and it’s personal – between me and the Dude – so I’m not going to bother.  What I can say is that the path of Synchronicity is a convoluted path.

Though I don’t believe it’s the path of Fate.**

I hope your day is filled with signs.

And hope.

**A blog for another time.